Biscuits: The best and worst revealed

It's no secret that us Brits love biscuits, but our love of the sweet treats could spell disaster for our waistlines with some of them containing an alarming amount of calories and sugar. Here's our guide to the best and worst biscuits for your diet.

According to research, we Brits work our way through a massive 141 million packs of biscuits a year. Whether we buy them for midday snacks, filling the kids’ lunch boxes or serving with our afternoon cuppas, the biscuit industry is worth a staggering £2.2billion – and we’ll be the first to admit we might have contributed to that more than a little!

Biscuits are our go-to treat, and we all have our favourites: HobNobs, Jaffa Cakes, Jammy Dodgers, we don’t know where we’d be without a biscuit or two on the treat menu from time to time. But is our craving for a sweet treat causing harm to our waistlines? And are we putting our health in danger? We decided to investigate…

It’s so hard to keep track of our daily calories when we’re on a diet, but if you’re reaching for a biscuit and think they’re all the same – think again! Your intentions might be good, but you could be accidentally mistaking a calorific culprit for a low-cal snack, and wouldn’t it be nice to know which biscuits you can tuck into guilt-free?

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We think you’ll be alarmed when you find out which is the worst biscuit you could eat when you’re trying to watch your weight (with a gasp-worthy 2.9g of saturated fat in each one!) and which is the best, with a diet-friendly 30 calories. We won’t spoil the surprise, but let’s just say that you don’t have to give up chocolate…

Here’s our round up of the best and worst biscuits on the supermarket shelves, so you can make a healthier choice next time you find yourself in the biscuit aisle. Now you just have to remember to stick to one, rather than tucking into half of the packet (oh come on now, we’ve all been there, haven’t we?)

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Tesco All Butter Shortbread Fingers: 1/10

Verdict: The high levels of butter in these shortbreads makes them the most calorific biscuits in our round up - plus each one contains almost a sixth of your daily recommended intake of saturated fats.

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Fox’s Golden Crunch Creams: 1/10

Cals: 78Fat: 3.7gSaturates: 2.1gSugar: 6.1g

Verdict:
These are one of the worst biscuits you can eat in terms of saturated
fats. Just two will amount to almost a quarter of your daily limit plus
there's a heaped teaspoon of sugar in each one.

Cadbury Crunchie Biscuits: 1/10

Verdict: The sweet honeycomb makes Crunchie biscuits the worst for sugar content and one of the highest for fat content.

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Jammy Dodgers: 2/10

Cals: 77Fat: 2.5gSaturates: 1.2gSugar: 4.9g

Verdict: Jammy Dodgers contain almost a heaped teaspoon of sugar in each one and there's no real raspberry in the fruity centre.

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Fox’s Viennese: 2/10

Cals: 64Fat: 3.4gSaturates: 1.8gSugar: 4.2g

Verdict: These
contain less calories and sugar than chocolate digestives but they have
more saturated fats. They also contain hydrogenated vegetable oil which
is bad for your health.

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McVitie’s Chocolate Hobnobs: 3/10

Cals: 92Fat: 4.4gSaturates: 2.2gSugar: 6.2g

Verdict: These have more than 7 times the amount of saturated fats and almost double the amount of sugar compared to plain HobNobs.

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McVitie’s Milk Chocolate Digestives: 3/10

Cals: 83Fat: 3.9gSaturates: 2.1gSugar: 4.9g

Verdict: These
biscuits may only have a few more calories than their non-chocolate
counterparts but they contain twice as much sugar and far higher levels
of saturated fats than a plain digestive.

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Tesco Bourbon Creams: 3/10

Cals: 66Fat: 2.9gSaturates: 1.7gSugar: 4.0g

Verdict:
These aren't the best biscuits for your heart as the cream centre in
just one has nearly 10% of your daily intake of saturated fat.

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Crawford’s Custard Creams: 4/10

Cals: 59Fat: 2.6gSaturates: 1.6gSugar: 3.6g

Verdict: A creamy centre and relatively high levels of fat mean these aren't the best biccy to reach for.

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Fox’s Crinkles Coconut: 5/10

Cals: 52Fat: 2.4gSaturates: 1.4gSugar: 3.6g

Verdict: These biscuits contain some coconut (11%) but large amounts of sugar and saturated fats.

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Maryland Chocolate Chip Cookies: 5/10

Cals: 53Fat: 2.4gSaturates: 1.1gSugar: 3.6g

Verdict: Not bad for a biscuit with chocolate chips - these cookies have less saturated fat than many other chocolatey options.

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McVitie’s Jaffa Cakes: 6/10

Cals: 46 Good for chocolate loversFat: 1gSaturates: 0.5gSugar: 6.4g

Verdict:
These are definitely one of the best options if you like chocolate and
are counting calories, but they are high in sugar, which will make your
sugar levels spike and leave you feeling hungry sooner.

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Tesco Ginger Nuts: 7/10

Cals: 45Fat: 1.5gSaturates: 0.7gSugar: 3.4g

Verdict: Ginger nuts are one of the healthier biscuits to choose and because of the
iron-rich molasses content, three biscuits will provide about a tenth of
the recommended daily allowance of iron which is good for your blood.

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Fox’s Moos Malted Milk: 8/10

Cals: 44Fat: 1.9gSaturates: 0.9gSugar: 1.7g

Verdict:
These biscuits have a high malt and milk content as well as having one
of the lowest calories amounts per biscuit and a low sugar and sat fat
content.

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McVitie’s Digestive: 9/10

Cals: 71 Good for tea loversFat: 3.2gSaturates: 1.5gSugar: 2.5g

Verdict: The high wholewheat content makes these a good source of fibre which helps provide healthy digestion.

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McVitie’s Oaty HobNobs: 9/10

Cals: 71Fat: 3.1gSaturates: 1.3gSugar: 3.9g

Verdict:
These biscuits are great for fibre with their high oat and wholeweat
content giving you 10% of your daily amount in three biscuits. They'll
also provide a steady release of energy despite the high sugar levels.

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McVitie’s Rich Tea: 10/10

Cals: 38Fat: 1.3gSaturates: 0.1gSugar: 1.7g

Verdict:
These Rich Tea biscuits are really low in saturated fats as they're
made with vegetable oil and they're less calories than a plain
digestive.

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McVitie’s Digestive Thins: 10/10

Cals: 31Fat: 1.5gSaturates: 0.8gSugar: 1.9g

Verdict: Now you really can have your biscuit and dunk it! These slimmed-down digestives contain just 31 calories, so you can have two and still consume less calories than you could with one normal-sized biscuit.

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Oreo Thins

Cals: 30 Lowest caloriesFat: 1.2gSaturates: 0.5gSugar: 2.3g

Verdict: Watch your sugar intake, as more than a couple of these could cause it to spike, but who would have thought that a chocolate biscuit could contain less calories than a Rich Tea?